Police in Poso, Central Sulawesi, announced on Sunday that they have arrested two men in Poso on April 30 for allegedly attempting to join the East Indonesia Mujahidin terrorist group led by Santoso.

According to police, the suspects, Dede Supriadi, 40, and Suwardi, 27, intended to meet up with another suspect, Muhammad Ovan Fadlan, who was arrested by the joint policy-military task force Operation Tinombala in Poso on April 27, also allegedly on his way to join Santoso.

Santoso is believed to be hiding in the forests with a group of supporters.

"They had already entered the woods, however, they had run out of supplies and money, so they came back down and we caught them," Operation Tinombala spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Hari Suprapto told thejakartapost.com on Sunday.

According to police, Dede and Suwardi spent six days in Palu, staying at two hotels for three nights each. They then moved on to Parigi, where they stayed three days, before entering the forest there. After another three days, however, they ran out of food and water.

"Then they came back to Palu, working as construction workers to save up some money. On May 1, they left again to meet Ovan, but we caught them," Hari said.

Currently, the suspects are in Central Sulawesi Police custody for questioning, where they were surprised to met Ovan as well as three more terrorism suspects who had turned themselves in: Saad, Akil and Fakih, according to police.

"Thank God we got caught by the police, so we are not getting deeply involved with Santoso. The information we got from social media is really different from the facts in the field," Dede said.

Source:
courtesy of THE JAKARTA POST

by Ruslan Sangaji

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